No health without mental health

By Dr Maxine Hawkins, Psychologist, Mt Lawley

“There is no health without mental health”. I love this quote for so many reasons. Physical health and emotional health are intimately intertwined in what’s known as the mind-body connection. While this statement is widely acknowledged, how each person experiences and address their mind body connection varies.

Some people have the tenacity to push themselves to superhuman levels and their ‘health’ holds out. However, we then see them with low mood and anxiety symptoms. For some, their resentment builds, or they struggle to find joy in life. They may turn to food, alcohol or other substances to cope with emotions. For others, their physical health (chest pain, migraines, fatigue) declines first and their

Key messages

“There is no health without mental health.” mental health follows. A decline can present in many ways such as fatigue, feeling numb, somatic or cognitive anxiety symptoms, difficulty with relationships and irritability.

Our feelings are trying to talk to us. Learning to listen to them is a skill.

Slowing down is vital.

The words or care shown by a GP will make people do things they won’t normally do! A health professional advocating to their patients to take action to improve the way they feel is a gift. A referral to a psychologist from a GP validates they have a real issue and gives the patient permission to seek support and hope for change.

A skilled psychologist has been trained how to conduct an extensive assessment. There is no point in assisting someone to manage anxiety better or improve their mood when the root causes of some of their issues remain unaddressed. Slowing things down in an assessment phase is important for the psychologists to understand the patient, as well as the opportunity for golden therapy moments – when the client better understands themselves to promote action within their own lives.

Melbourne University (where I studied) taught us how to conduct